


Pain isn't always physical

by Yellow_lightning



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Autistic Peter Parker, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Injured Peter Parker, Irondad, Minor Injuries, Mostly Fluff, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25773538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellow_lightning/pseuds/Yellow_lightning
Summary: Peter gets overwhelmed by something that should've been an easy take down and flees as soon as the battle is over, Tony is understandably worried and searches for him and finds his boy in the mist of a panic attack
Relationships: hinted Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 13
Kudos: 158





	Pain isn't always physical

**Author's Note:**

> Idk how to tag, so... help in the comments if you can?

Peter swung away from the battle, well it wasn't really a battle, it had started off small, just a robbery, a 3 man job at most, but then the men were suddenly armed and calling for backup. Peter got overwhelmed quickly even with his spidey senses he was taking hits, with so many people swarming him so quickly, he couldn't concentrate on a single person long enough to take them down. As soon as reinforcements came, in the form of the other avengers, Peter hung back, picking off stragglers, who tried to run off. There was still quite a lot of people despite most of them being huddled in the centre where the big five were.

As soon as it was over Peter was out of that shit show, clutching his side tightly from where he had been nicked by a knife he hadn't seen, his ears ringing with tinnitus from the loud gunshots and his vision was blurred from all the stimulus. He was verging on overstimulation,he could barely stand the feeling of his suit clinging to him tightly as he swung through new york. The busy streets didn't help, with all the honking and shouting, he vaguely heard someone saying something on the coms of his suit, he tightly and quickly told Karen to turn them off. 

Peter couldn't tell how long he'd been swinging (it felt like one second, and ten hours at the same time) but he saw the avengers tower soon enough, he didn't remember going in this direction but he must have. 

He landed roughly, scraping his knees on the asphalt of the helipad, he scrambled to his feet and raced down the stairs to Tony's room, his mind wasn't clear enough to worry if Tony would even want him there like any other time, he just knew he needed out of his suit now before it suffocated him, and that Tony's room was relatively safe.

He stripped quickly, leaving the teen in only his loose underwear before he collapsed into a ball on the floor. The lights felt like the sun, hot, loud, and bright. His skin felt a bit too tight, just on the wrong side of uncomfortable. He could smell the expensive cologne that Tony wore to important business meetings and parties from its container across the room, if Peter thought about it, he vaguely remembered Tony saying something about spilling a bit the other day and it stinking up the whole room.

Peter felt his hands at the sides of his neck, nervously scratching leaving deep red line across it, humming lowly and agressively, trying to get the horrible anxious feeling to leave. It didn't work the scratching got faster, tearing the skin under his nails and ausing droplets of blood to rise to the surface. Peter thought he might be hyperventilating but he wasn't sure. Everything was distorted in a blur of light and sound, swirling together dangerously making Peter wish he could disappear into the void, swallowed by nothingness while all his feelings went away for good.

\----------------

Tony was worried vurging on distraught, he knew his kid was the one to call in the robbery, but when he looked, Peter was no where to be found. He asked around, even asking some people several times just in case, but not even the paramedics had seen his spiderling, a shot of anxiety ran up Tony's spine, what he was hurt or kidnapped, what if he was scared and alone with only people that cared about themselves and money there with him to see.

He called for his kid over the coms asking if anyone had seen or heard from him. No one had seen him, before Tony could go into full on dad mode, JARVIS helpfully pointed out that he had installed a tracker into the kid's suit, pulling up a small map infront of him, he quickly realized the kid was at the tower.

Breathing a sigh of relief, some of the anxiety left Tony's body, he closed his eyes tightly letting his heart rate and breathing slow before going to quickly run down what had happened to the police, and getting berudegedly dragged to the med tent to get checked out. While Tony had significantly calmed down, he wouldn't be one hundred percent calm until seeing Peter safe and sound at the tower. After what felt like forever getting unnecessarily checked over, Tony was finally allowed to leave. He flew off hurridly to the tower. 

He got there in record time, his heart dropped when he didn't see Peter in the communal area, where he had thought his boy would go after changing. The older man frantically searched the tower top to bottom before someone suggested checking his room, he made his way up, hoping against hope that his kid was there.

His blood turned ice cold when he saw Peter on the floor struggling to breathe and bleeding from both shallow scratches on his neck, and a gnarly looking gash in his side. After a quick look he could tell the breathing problem wasn't from either of the injuries. He quickly turned off the lights and closing the curtains he sat down next to his kid sadly, wishing he could just take all the worlds problems away from his sweet boy.

\----------------

Everything went dark, Peter panicked slightly before the familiar blurry shape of his father figure came into view, quickly darkened again by the curtains being closed to block out even more light. Without the added heat from both the sun and lightbulbs, the room became considerably cooler. The room was now relatively quiet, only Tony's light footsteps could be heard, made damper by socks and carpet.

Tony sat by Peter giving him space, to an outsider it would look like the older man was ignoring the distress teen; Peter, however, was greatful to not have the burning gaze of another person, especially one that he looked up to, on him while he calmed down.   
"Try not to scratch kiddo, please" Tony whispered still not looking at Peter. Peter started to tear up at the thought of putting his arms down and have the sickeningly tight skin touch. Instead of doing this, he hooked his hands round the back of his neck and looked down.

Presumably, Tony saw Peter's distress and stood up again to walk over to his wardrobe. Peter saw him pull out a clean, well-worn t-shirt, from his peripherals smiling slightly at the thought of escaping the tightness in his body. While the t-shirt may have been relatively well fitting on Tony, Peter was much slimmer and shorter, making it a bit baggy on the smaller teen. Tony placed the top next to the boy, giving him the option of putting it on if he chose, but not forcing anything. The boy wasn't completely naked which was good enough for the older man. 

Peter snuggled up to the t-shirt, taking in the soft fabric and the faint smell of oil and smoke that had been sewn into the fabric from too many wares in the lab and now couldn't be washed out. It smelled like home.

Softly wiping his eyes, Peter sat up, not looking at Tony and softly asked if he was in trouble. Tony took a deep breath,  
"Geez kid, of course not, why would you think that?"  
Peter could come up with a million and one reasons why he could be in trouble but the brain and mouth seemed to have list connection in the few seconds since he'd last talked. The teen quickly pulled on the top, before stopping short halway through and pointing at his side. Tony walked over to the bathroom and pulled out the first aid kit. While Peter's wound had bled a lot, it was very shallow and thankfully only needed to be wrapped to stop infection. Peter shed a few tears when brought out antibacterial cream, with one look at his kid's teary eyes, Tony decided to forgo the cream until a later date. 

Once all was said and done, Peter curled around Tony. The smell of oil, smoke and static was more potent now, drowning out the yucky smell of expensive cologne. Tony lightly wrapped his arms around his kid, careful not to hurt him.

They sat there for a few minutes enjoying the comfort they brought eachother. Eventually it had to be broken in favour of getting Peter hydrated and fed. The moment after Peter's panic attacks were always awkward, through no fault of his own. Tony was just learning how to take care of him and the teens needs. Peter wanted to forget they ever happened, but knew that wasn't possible, Tony was observant, but he needed to know what happened if he had any hope of preventing it from triggering Peter in the future. 

Despite everything, a while after Peter had calmed down whether that be seconds or hours, the boys always curled up next to eachother, alone or with Pepper, on the sofa and put on a film as quiet as possible with subtitles on and sometime throughout the film Tony would softly kiss Peter's head and whisper into him   
"No matter what, I'll always be there for you, nothing could change that kid"

\----------------

Peter looked down, tears in his eyes. Breath hitching as he tried not to make too much noise. 

Tony's first arc reactor, labelled 'proof Tony stark has a heart' floated across the lake. Peter had always known Tony had had a heart, the very first time he met him, the first time he helped him, the first time he had come to him crying of heatbreak, and overstimulation, and many other things that didn't seem to matter now.

Tony was wrong, he couldn't always be there for his kids. Peter knew that, had always known that, but it still hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> :) 
> 
> Please correct any grammar/spelling errors if there are any, i won't be offended.
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated, requests are welcome as always.


End file.
